Broken Mirror 6: Avalon
by Tribun
Summary: 9..11 in my saga. It is three nights since the near fiasko in Central Park, and the clan expects something to happen very soon. But they have no idea that the something that will happen, would be a lavender colored, female gargoyle.
1. Angela

Episode #9-11

-For the sake of my story I have re-arranged the chonology of the episodes. "The  
Mirror", "City of Stone" and "High Noon" now take place after "The Price" in this  
order. Also the events of the latter two episodes will obviously change. **This is  
extemly important!**  
-I hope I got Angela right.  
-This will be VERY differnt form the Avalon-Episode we know.  
-I have no clue of the exact English quotes, so I simply translated the quotes from  
the German translated episodes.

_Previously on Gargoyles:_

_Hakon: "Magic spells! Ha, good that I can't read!"_

_----_

_Goliath: "I have a request. The eggs in the rookery will soon hatch. They will need guidance."  
Princess Katharine: "Never fear, we will watch over them as if they were our own."_

_**-Awakening, Part II**_

_Prince Malcolm: "I suspect the Archmage behind this. Should he dare to return, I will..."_

_Archmage: "You will DIE!"_

_**-Long Way to Morning**_

_Archmage: "The Grimorum Arcanorum I already posses. I still need the Phoenix Gate and the Eye of Odin to achive ultimate power."_

_----_

_Archmage: "The strangers are gone. It is them who I can put the blame on for the theft of the Phoenix Gate."_

_**-Vows**_

_Elisa: "No... I won't do that! I'm not a cold-blooded killer like you! I won't let my anger rule me, like it did rule you!"_

_Demona: "A pity...then you will die!"_

_----_

_Demona: "But why have we stolen them, even known where to find them!" _

_MacBeth: "I wonder... Why we even work together?"_

_----_

_Seline: "Was it wise to let Coldstone leave? He could have been a really great ally in the upcoming battle."_

_Phoebe: "Coldstone is of no interest for us. These talismans will be more than enough. The Archmage will then have enough power, to blow our enemies off Avalon."_

_**-High Noon (on Midnight)**_

_**Broken Mirror**_

**Avalon, Part I**

"I...I can't go. My leg...it is injured. You have porven to be one the ones who have taken my training most serious, and you, please don't take this as offensive, look much human, thus hopefully easing fears. I want you to go."

"I would be honored Guardian. I won't dissapoint you. I will find Goliath!"

_...Manhattan, after sunset..._

Elisa checked herself for a second time in the mirror. It was already three days ago since Demona had beaten her up. But Elisa checked herself despite the fact, that stone sleep had healed her already after the first day. No traces remained of her ordeal. In fact she even not remembered all of the fight. What she however DID remember beside some of the injuries was, that Demona had destroyed her shirt, but she had continued to fight, not caring that she had become topless. She hoped that none of the clan had looked too much and that they would never bring up this topic.

She then noticed Goliath standing at the restroom door. "Stone sleep is really handy. I don't want to know what I looked like three nights ago, but I surely wasn't a nice sight. I'm just lucky that Demona hadn't knocked out any of my teeth because I doubt that there is a dentist for gargoyles."

"I remember that some of our elders back then weren't so lucky. It is especially hard, because we actually have to eat meat to stay healthy." Goliath rememberd the elder who had lost nearly all of his teeth im combat. He had died a slow death because he couldn't eat properly anymore.

"Let's hope that it won't come THAT far!" Elisa answered, turning off the light. "I actually feel like stretching my wings a little. Being cooped up in here for two nights did them no real good. And some more lessons in using them would be a good idea... Oh please Goliath, can you accompany me?"

Goliath had the feeling that she wanted to be with him not only for teaching her gliding techiniques. She was in this new form for only a month, but already seemed to have formed a sort of bond with him. Spending more time specifically with him than with the rest of the clan. He knew he needed to be careful not to do something wrong, or it would confuse her and hurt her feelings. "I would be honored."

Walking back up and through the clock tower, they saw that the others were already gone on patrol and wouldn't be back until midnight. Outside, the night was perfect with no clouds obscuring the stars and the moon high in the sky. Together the took off into the sky.

_...at the same time..._

Her skiff left the mist, and she tried hard, not to fall on her butt while staring in amazement. The lake she had arrived on was surrounded by trees, and behind the trees... was a sea of lights. Most of them were yellow or white, but there were also other colors, some seeming to form words.

Finally the skiff arrived at a wooden construction at the lake shore. Leaving it behind, she looked around more. The were poles with a glass orb on top, which radiated light, ways paved with stone. No one was in sight.

"And this is where I will find the great Goliath? Such a mysterious place full of wonders!" Cimbing up a big rock, she looked around. The lights came from big things that looked like buildings, but much bigger than the castle she lived at! Spreading her wings, she jumped off the rock and gained hight. Just for now she had forgotten her mission, simply too fascinated by this place.

Flying towards the buildings and them between them, she was able to see some more things. On the ground were humans, quite a lot of them. She had never seen so many of them! There were also strange metallic things rolling over the ways down there. It was so much different from Avalon. She had no idea how long already she glided over this fascinating place, it was so...

"Hey, who are you?"

Scared by the sudden voice behind her, she jerked around while trying to see from where it came... only to collide head-first with a wall! Everything became black before her eyes. Then she felt no more.

It had been a wonderful glide over Manhattan. Elisa had relaxed, gliding slowly becoming familiar for her. This had went on for half a hour, before they had spotted a shadow gliding between the buildings. It was defiently a female judging by the shape. She had a tail, so it wasn't Maggie. And she wasn't bright enough for Demona's skin color.

So they had glided behind her, and called her. But that had been a error, because the girl was obviously startled, and had collided head-first with a wall, knocking her out. Elisa wasted no time. She dived behind the girl, grabbing her ankle while at the same time slamming the talons of her other hand into the wall, stopping their descent.

"Oh boy, that was close..." Looking down to the lavender-skined girl, she blushed then looked away. When hanging upside-down, gargoyle clothing was far too revealing. Good that this girl would never know what she had seen... To her relief, Goliath approached from below and scooped the girl up.

"Thank you Goliath." Then she climbed up the wall to the roof, where he would wait. She still had problems with the concept of wall-cimbing with her fingers, but she slowly got the knack of it. Good thing that she had never this kind of fixation on finger nails and painting them. It would have made her lerning process much harder. Finally she climbed over the top.

"I wonder who she is?" he asked while holding the mysterious female gargoyle that had suddenly appeared in Manhattan.

Looking on her head, Elisa saw a big bump already developing on the girl's head. "Ouch... I think she will be out for quite a while." Elisa then looked at her closely, noticed some things. "Goliath...look at her. Her face, her wings, the build of her body. She almost looks like Demona. But she has your skin and hair color, as well as the brow ridge. Almost as if..."

"Elisa please! This is impossible. The egg Demona and I created...that was 1000 years ago. Nobody lives so long unless immortal. ...And even then, the gargoyle way forbids this. We will solve this mystery back home." Goliath then took off.

Elisa wondered why he had suddenly become that defensive while she followed him. I need to ask what the deal with this 'gargoyle way' is. _Why reacted Goliath so offended when I even only hinted that she looks like a offspring of his?_

Asking herself these questions again and again in thoughts, they returned to the clock tower.

_...two hours later..._

"...and then I got him! The guy nearly pissed himself when seeing me! Ha ha! Of course he surrendered at once." Broadway told of his catching of a thief who just wanted to leave a house he had broken into.

"Almost is not doing it. The hooker who had stabbed her customer DID wet herself before she fainted!" Lexington said, almost proud of it.

"Younglings..." Hudson muttered while putting Bronx down. He had just met them when returning the beast from his walk though the park. "Always boasting wi' their adventures. Me boy, ye should be glad to be a beast..."

But the beast ignored him, sniffed on the ground, before barking happy, running inside. In wonder the clan followed him downstairs... and stopped when they saw why he was so happy. Sitting unconscious in the armchair, wrapped in a blanket and a ice pack bound on her head, was a young, lavender-skinned, female gargoyle! Elisa and Goliath were watching her while Bronx walked around the chair without rest, obviously excited at this newcomer.

"Who is she? Where does she come from?" The young males wasted no time and stormed down the stairs, asking Goliath Elisa the same questions again and again, while never taking the eyes off the newcomer until Elisa gave them a hard look, forcing them to pull themselves together.

"We have no idea who she is, nor why she is here. She just showed up in the city, and when we called her, she was distracted and flew head-first into a wall. That is why she is in this condition." Golaith explained, his hard look making it clear to the young males to behave themselves.

Brooklyn looked at her closer. "Hey, she looks a lot like Demona, but with the colors all wrong. Could she be a clone of Demona like this Thailog is of Goliath?"

Goliath looked as if not wanting to say something to this issue, but Elisa not wanted to stay silent. "I don't think she is a clone, because there are several things that don't look like Demona, like her brow ridge. She looks more like I would picture a offspring of Goliath and Demona."

Goliath grumbled something about the gargoyle way, before he again turned his attention to their guest, keeping also always a eye on the trio. Elisa walked over to Hudson, indicating to him to come outside. As soon as they had left the interitor of the clock tower and Elisa had closed the door, she asked him: "Hudson, what is the matter with Goliath? Both times I mentioned this possibility, as far fetched as it is, he said something about the 'gargoyle way'. Can you explain me what he means with that?"

"Ahh... the lad means wi' that, that in a clan the hatchlings are children of the whole clan, personal perantage is not common. Ye should understand... the lad wa' raised wi' this way o' thinking, an' now he has problems with yuir observation that she could be of his line. Ye could call Goliath conservate concerning the gargoyle way." Hudson explained, glad that he could finally explain this to her, because it was important, especially for her.

"There are still some times when I don't really understand you guys..." Elisa said more to herself while they returened to the others to wait for the gargoyle girl to wake up.

_...later that night..._

"Ohhhh..." she moaned in pain while waking up. She felt horrible, as if her head had been split in two. _I was always warned to look ahead when gliding, and now I know, why..._ At least something cold was on her head, easing the pain enough to allow her to think clear. Daring to open her eyes, she felt like jumping on her feet, but another headarche cautioned her not to. There was a group a gargoyles around her, watching her closely. Carefully openening her eyes again, she looked if these matched the descriptions the guardian had given her.

There was first the small ovile colored one with webbed wings, then the aquamarine one who had a weight problem and the red one with the prominent beak. The blue beast was walking around her seat. She looked at the old one twice, she had never seen a gargoyle that old and with farcial hair, it had to be the elder she was told of. And then there was... he was huge, bigger than all her brothers! Over two meters tall, her color sheme. That had be the great Goliath she was looking for, she had found him! She...

Then she noticed another one, this one near Goliath. It was a brown female with black hair, wearing strange clothing. She wondered who she was, because the Guardian, Magus and the Princess had not mentioned a female surviving the massacre. But that question could wait for now, her mission was mor important. She again looked at Goliath.

"Are...you...the one called Goliath?" The words came out slow, she was awed by his appearance.  
"  
Yes, I am..." He wasn't able to say more, because the girl literally let out a flood of questions in such quick order that there was no way to answer her, or even understand more than half of the questions. She finally became quiet and moaned in pain, when another headarche hit her.

Elisa rightened the ice pack on her head. "Easy now... you have quite a bump on your head after flying into that wall. Better be careful next time." The girl's face became darker, showing clearly that this incident was a source of a little embarressment. "But we should begin with some important things. First up, what is your name, if you have one?"

The girl looked at her, as if she had asked something very strange. "Of course I have a name. We all have, how could I and my silbrings otherwise tell each other apart?" She had reveiled that she had silbrings, but not seemed to care. "I'm called Angela. What is your name?"

Elisa was a little taken aback by Angela's slightly rude reaction, but decided to let it slip, because she was most likely still under a sort of stress. "I'm Elisa." Then she pointed out the clan one-for-one. "Goliath the leader you already know. This is Brooklyn the second-in-command here, next Broadway our master in the kitchen, beside him Lexingtion our technical wizard. There is Hudson our elder, and walking around your chair...with a cat sleeping on him... is Bronx, our watchbeast carrying Cagney, our cat."

Angela then remembered why she was there and again tried to stand up, only to become dizzy and deciding to continue to sit in the comfortable chair."I...we... need your help! The Archmage is attacking us, threatening to destroy the leagacy of Clan Wyvern by killing all of us!"

"What! The Archmage! But he died over thousand years ago!" Hudson suddenly said, remembering too well their last encounter.

"Magus is totally sure that it is him, who wants to kill us, to gain control over Avalon." Angela returned.

"Stop!" Goliath suddenly intervened, halting every conversation. "One thing after the other! Tell us the whole story from the beginning, only then we can understand."

"I will try to repeat what our guardians have told us so many times over the years. It is a long story, so it could be that I accidently confuse a thing or two... It begins after the curse was put upon all of you..."

And then she told them what had happened after castle Wyvern was abonded. How the eggs were first brought to Katharine's uncle, the king of Scotland. The coup of Constantin, usurping the crown, forcing them to flee again, aiming for the mystic isle of Avalon. How the Sisters were dealt with and the Grimorum left with two of the friends. And how they grew up on the isle after that.

After she had told all of it, there was silence while she paused.

"But that was 1000 years ago! How it comes that you are still alive and so young?" Lexington finally asked, still taken aback how much these humans had sacrificed to protct the eggs of the clan.

Angela seemed confused first, before she understood. "Magus told me, that while a day passes here, only a hour passes on Avalon."

"Ye mentioned the Archmage..." Hudson was now agitated again. He was fascinated that the rookery had survived, but now the memory of his last fight with the Archmage was again coming through.

Angela nodded. "When we woke up this night, we were attacked. The three Sisters, together with the Archmage. They were backed up by a white-haired, bearded man and a female gargoyle with blue skin and red hair."

"That can only be Demona and MacBeth!" Brooklyn realized. "So that are these plans the Sisters mentioned. They seem to want to retake the isle by working together with the Archmage. Demona and MacBeth would never work together, so most likely they are enspelled." Brooklyn knew too well how powerfull a spell could be to could someone's mind. Irony that Demona was now enspelled herself.

"But the question still stands, how could he have survived?" Goliath asking, remembering the Archmage falling into the abyss, vanishing into the dark.

"Magus mentioned, he could go through time..." Angela tried to remember. "Maybe it is that?"

Suddenly Goliath looked horrified, and ran through a side door into another room. "No!" he cursed, then returned. "The magical artifacts are gone. Now the strange scene with Demona and MacBeth some nights ago makes sense. They have stolen them from us, then distracted us from finding out. And with the Phoenix Gate, the Archmage was able to save himself from death. So he is real, and also has the Eye and the Book."

Elisa looked over to Angela. "There is still more you need to tell us?"

"Yes... The Archmage threatened that he would return at dawn to destroy all of us. The Guardian wanted to find you, but he was injured during the battle, so it was me who was sent to find you, and here are we now... We need to go, we need to..." Again a headarche hit, when she jumped up, forcing her to calm down.

Elisa forced her to again sit down. "I fear for tonight we won't go anywhere. You hit your head pretty hard, so you can't leave until tomorrow evening." Angela not said anything, but finally sighed, hoping that the time would be still enough.

The clan left her for now, gathering on the balcony to talk under themselves.

"This sounds at first almost too crazy to be true. But after all what had happened to us here, it almost sounds normal." Brooklyn said, forcing himself not to think of Angela.

"The Archmage was already a very dangerous opponent back then. I can only image how powerful he is now. I need to go with her to the isle Avalon tomorrow night. The madness has to be stopped, or the clan is again paying in blood." Goliath said, determined.

"Then we will come with you Goliath!" The others declared, feeling obliged to save the last rookery of Wyvern from destruction.

"No." Goliath simply said. That word hit the clan like a hurrican. Confused and partly angered, some of them, especially Brooklyn, demanded why Goliath denied them to help in the upcoming battle. Goliath waited until the storm of angry questions was over, before he answered: "There are two reasons why not all of you can come with me. First, Angela only has one skiff. A whole clan can't fit into it, and we don't have the time to get another boat. And second, the city still needs it's protectors, so we can't all go."

Goliath's words made sense to them. It was the bitter fact, that they simply couldn't bring all their numbers into battle. But Goliath wasn't done yet. "Beside myself, I will choose two more. Bronx for one, because it could be needed to tack them over that isle. And for second -and I don't want any discussion about that now- will Elisa accompany me. This has nothing to do with preference but with the simple fact that she, as strange as it sounds, has actually the best chances against Demona in battle. Demona knows all of you, how you fight, your weaknesses. But Elisa is a unknown for her. Also the last time, Demona nearly lost, because her anger seemed to let her make errors."

Goliath then looked over to Brooklyn. "I know this comes early for you, but for the time of my abscense, it is your place to lead the others. I'm sure my old menthor Hudson will give you good advice, but the hard decisions will be yours to make. I'm putting my trust into you Brooklyn."

"I won't disappoint you, Goliath!" Brooklyn declared, but the fact that all responibility would lie on him from tomorrow onward was not something he had wanted so soon.

While Goliath gave Brooklyn some more advice, Elisa sneaked her way to Hudson. "So I was right. She is his offspring. Only someone blind could not see that. Do you think we should tell her?"

"Better not. The lass would be shocked to 'ear this from ye. Goliath seems to be nearly a myth to her." Hudson had noticed Angela's rection to their leader, and had concluded, that her human guardians seemed to have given Goliath a little the appearance of a surperhero.

Then the clan walked back inside. Because it was still a couple of hours to dawn, they would start to tell Angela their story, curios over how she would react to what had happened to them so far.

_...near dawn..._

"And you were really human until changed by a fey?" Angela asked after the story of the weird night of the mirror was told to her. She tried to image Elisa without wings and tail, but had problems doing so.

"Well, look here... that's my old self." Elisa said while showing her some photos.

The photos Elisa showed her of her old self after, seeing that the story was not totally belived, were helpful. She had to admit, Elisa's face looked not much different from back then. "You still lokk much like your old self..."

"I know. Stange, isn't it? My whole body was changed, but my face stayed the same. As if Puck wanted to do me a favor." Elisa spelled the name of that fey like a disease, not liking him.

They were interrupted, when Broadway seemed to feel something. "The sun is about to go up."

Elisa just managed to get Angela out of the seat before the sun peaked over the horizont, locking the gargoyles into stone. Tomorrow would be the last night the clan would spend as a whole for quite some time...

**_to be continued..._**


	2. Arriving on Avalon

Episode #9-11

_**Broken Mirror**_

**Avalon, Part II**

It was quiet in Central Park. Night had fallen, and the few people who still came to the park prefered to stay on the lit ways through the park. So nobody noticed the group of gargoyles standing on the landing bridge beside the boat house.

"I trust you to lead them as good as I would. Now is the time for you to show all what you have learned to be a second in comand. I trust you Brooklyn, so please prove me right." Goliath said to Brooklyn, while he was already standing in the skiff.

Brooklyn felt as if just now, the responsibility was shifted to him and lasting on his shoulders. "Goliath, I will do my very best. I only not want to take over your post too early, so please come back alive and in one piece."

"Promise me to take good care of my cat while I'm away, Broadway." Elisa said to the aquamarine gargoyle who held the cat in his arms.

"I promise! And actually he would remind me the hard way if he wanted something." Broadway remembered too well when Cagney had scratched his tail to tell him that he was hungry. Broadway not wanted to repeat this experience too soon.

"It is time..." Angela simply said. She only wanted to return to Avalon as fast as she could, to prevent the worst.

The clan exchanged last goodbyes, then the skiff departed. Pushing the skiff towards the middle of the lake, Angela started to speak in Latin. _"Venite venti fortunate ex rege Oberone et hic navis flumen regate ad orae Avalonis!"_ And suddenly, a thick mist surrounded the skiff.

The clan watched the skiff disappear in the mist, which suddenly disappeared. The skiff was gone. Brooklyn then turned around. "Ok, back the the clock tower. We need to re-organize the partol areas. We don't want to disappoint Goliath when he comes back."

Leaving the landing bridge, Brooklyn hoped really that Goliath would get back alive. _I'm not ready for being the leader yet! Goliath, do me a favor and don't let yourself killed!_

The clan was silent while they returned to the clock tower.

_...on the skiff..._

"This mist is magical. It is the room we stay in, until the transit to Avalon is done." Angela explained while pushing the skiff with the pole forward. "It is harmless, the Guardian has done this numerous times." she added when she saw that the other two gargoyles were not comfortable with traveling with magic.

"Actually Angela, there is something I want to ask you. How comes it that you speak modern English? Actually... I don't even understand how the clan can understand modern English when coming from middle-age Scotland?" Elisa only now noticed that Angela spoke modern-age English, something that should be impossible.

Goliath answered first. "Well, that had made me wonder too. I woke up 1000 years in the future, could understand everyone and read without problems. I would guess that Demona used a spell that teached us the language in seconds without us even noticing it first, because it seemed so natural for us." Thinking about it, it did now made sense for him. And while he was still fluent in the old language, he was now also capable of speaking modern English without problem. He actually not even had noticed at first when using it.

"And as far as I know...", Angela tried to remember, not having thought of this before, "..the Guardin mentioned something about a spell that enables the traveler to 'understand'. I think it teaches us all we need to know about the language... I bet just now it teaches you the old language so that you can understand us." Angela then added when looking to Elisa.

Elisa frowned, not liking any magic doing something to her. She already had enough of that, she wanted no more magic to touch her. But that stopped when the mist disappeared, giving them free view on a island.

"That is Avalon?" she asked Angela, forgetting her earlier anger.

"It is. Welcome to the home of me and my clan." Angela simply said, obviously eager to finally return to her home.

Arriving on the beach, they pulled the skiff on land. No one seemed to be there to greet them. But suddenly Bronx looked very excited, barking loud. And it was fast obvious why he was so happy. Another Gargoyle-Beast, this one yellow colored, ran towards them, greeting Angela excited, by jumping at her.

"Ooof... Boudicca! Yes, I'm happy to see you too." Angela said while crouching down to greet the Beast. "You couldn't wait to see me again, right?"

"We couldn't wait also!" suddenly came a voice from above. They looked up to see two gargoyles, one male and one female, gliding down from the top of the cliff. But the female seemed to have some problems with gliding. When they landed, Elisa got a good view on them.

The male was big, but not nearly as big as Goliath, had blond hair, green-bluish skin and horns that curved backwards. Somehow, he reminded Elisa slightly of someone, but she had no idea, who. The female was green in color, had red hair and a very big and prominent horn-plate on her forehead, dominated by two sharp, forward-pointing horns, which made her look really exotic. She also saw why the female was not good with gliding, there were several wounds on her wings.

"Gabriel!" Instead of being happy, Angela seemed more angry and looked that way at the male. "Why have you brought her here? Ophelia is in no condition to go outside!"

"I can handle myself, and I came on my own." the female named Ophelia said, but the constant look of pain that showed in her features spoke another language. Clearly she hurt constantly, but was too proud to admit it.

Only then they noticed who had come with Angela. They first saw the blue Gargoyle-Beast who was jsut now running around with Boudicca. Then the strange female gargoyle. Apart from the fact that their guardians never had even mentioned a female, she was strangely clothed and her older age made her somehow look much more mature. And last... both of them had to slightly look up to see the full hight of the big male gargoyle. He matched all descriptions of the great Goliath.

"Be greeted. I'm Goliath. Beside me is Elisa, a member of my clan. And this one is Bronx, our Beast." Goliath finally said, to break the silence.

As if being brought out of a daydream, both of them approached him. "Angela really found you... I already had feared that she wouldn't come back after a hour had passed by." Gabriel said with relief. "Come! It is not safe out here, let's go to the castle where we can talk."

"I agree...I know what the Archmage is capable of..." Goliath agreed and they made their way to the castle. But they were just about to leave the beach, when suddenly, the sand started to shift below them.

"Goliath...do my eyes play me a prank, or is the sand moving?" Elisa whispered, feeling suddenly a little afraid. She had faced death several times, but somehow this suddenly moving sand unnerved her.

**"Oh, the only prank is, what I plan to do with all of you!"** a voice suddenly boomed behind them, scaring them near to a heart attack. Jerking around they faced a man made of sand. **"I never guessed that you would need help from a girl, Goliath."** the sand-man then mocked, clearly playing on Elisa's presence.

"Archmage...!" Goliath growled, hate coming through. It was clear to all that between these two there was a deep hostility.

**"Good that you remember me, Goliath!"** the Archmage said, before he slammed a lot of sand on Goliath, forcing him to the ground. At the same time, tentacles of sand wrapped around the others, leaving only Elisa and Ophelia free. Also a second sand-Archmage came out of the ground.

"Ah, fuck!" Elisa cursed before drwing her gun. She felt that fighting with these things with her bare fists would be not very wise. Aiming her gun for the first time in weeks, three shots found their mark into the head of the sandman. But the holes simply closed and before Elisa could react, she was grabbed by a big hand.

**"Foolish girl, did you really think that this would hurt me?"** He then slammed her to the ground, sandtentacles holding her down. **"I wonder what Goliath sees in you?"**

Ophelia not fared much better. She had tried to attack the other sandman, but the first strike against her had sent her down, howling in pain. The sand burned in her wounds. The Archmage was not impressed. **"Looks like I wasn't clear enough in my first attack."** Throwing a big pile of sand on her, he made her unable to fight.

**"I gave you all time to prepare for your death, but you fools wasted it to get help!"** The sand crawled up Angela and Gabriel, enclosing them, foring them to hold their breaths. **"There won't be any help for you on each side of the sun. That you thought different almost hurts my feelings..."**

"Don't take it too personal, Archmage!" Goliath roared while getting up and ripping the tentacles off that held Elisa. Elisa admitted that her gun had been a bad idea, and choosed to follow Goliath's lead for a direct attack. Goliath had slammed into one of the now three Archmages, and had started to beat him to pieces. Elisa tried that with one of the others, cleanly smacked the head off before bisecting the sandman. It crumbled down. She was surprised herself how effective her attack had been, still not really used to her new strength.

Meanwhile the beasts had managed to free themselves and attacked the hydra-like archmages which had enclosed Angela and Gabriel. Clawing away the hydra-like Archmage-heads, the sand simply crumbled down, releasing the two gargoyles who gasped for air.

Now there was only one Archmage left. Together, Goliath and Elisa smashed their fists on it and it again became a pile of sand. Goliath roared in triumph, but that was short-lived when all the sand transformed into a giant Archmage. **"Don't crow too loudly. After all, what have you achieved - you beat up a beach!"** As if to mock them, he grew gargoyle wings. **"All of you will die when the sun will rise! You are warned."** The sand-Archmage then turned to stone before bursting to pieces, showering them with sand.

"That bastard was the Archmage?" Elisa asked slightly shocked while holstering her gun. What she had witnessed could have come directly from a horror-movie. Goliath nodded and she felt somehow not very good. "He gives me the creeps. I don't even want to know how bad he will be in person!"

But then their attention was pulled elsewere when Gabriel pulled Ophalia out of the sand. She literally cried in pain. "Arrrgghhh... I and my stupid pride! It hurts so much..." She not offered any protest when Gabriel picked her up. As fast as they could, they made their way to the castle.

Elisa walked beside Goliath, when she noticed something. "Goliath, I know that's not the right time... But these two seem to be more than just friends. Look how they talk with each other and how he holds her."

Goliath had noticed it too, but had kept silent until now, because it wasn't his place to talk about it. "Young love... It gives me some hope for our race. Maybe we might have a future... if we come out of this confrontation alive."

"But there is something else...they somehow smell so...it is hard to describe. They somehow smell different than any other gargoyle I've met yet." Elisa said, unsure what it meant.

Goliath only then realized, that Elisa couldn't have known about that. "What you smell is the scent that announces that they are mated... A sign to anyone else to not even dare anything involving intruding into this relationship. They probably don't know of this too, but I would recognize this scent at once." He then noticed Elisa obviously wondered about something, and he knew what it was. "The scent change won't start until the couple mates for real several times, if you know what I mean." The slight darkening of her cheeks was confirmation enough that she had understood.

Finally the castle came into view. Several gargoyles circled around it but all landed when they saw the group returning to the castle. The three newcomers were watched with pure curiosity, as they were the first strangers they had seen in their entire life. Most of them descended down to get a closer look, only to stop in awe when they saw the giant who was Goliath. The males of the clan also whispered under themselves who this strange female was that was with Goliath, since the guardians had never mentioned a female in their tales. Here and there there was a comment what a beauty she was.

Finally they arrived in the main hall which now served as shelter for the wounded. Nine gargoyles, mostly sleeping, were there, lying on wooden tables, blankets covering them. It looked uncomfortable, but most likely they had to use the hard wood because they had no alternatives. There were three humans also, busy with cleaning and covering the wounds of the injured. Goliath had no problem to recognise two of them, dispite them having aged 40 years. But he would have failed with the third if not for what Angela had told him. They had not yet noticed them, too busy with their tasks.

Just then Ophelia again screamed in pain, getting their attention.

"By the Lord!" Catherine ran to them, ignoring the newcomers when only having eyes for the screaming Ophelia. "What had happened!"

"The Archmage has attacked us at the beach. He had hit her pretty hard, putting sand into her wounds which now causes her the pain." Gabriel managed to say while he carefully putting her down on a empty table. "I must admit that without Goliath's help, we would be dead now."

Only then she noticed that Angela was successful in her mission. Goliath looked still the same as all these years ago, not aged a day, meaning that he must have been released from the spell not really long ago. Beside him was the big dog-like beast the clan had back in the days of Wvyern, so it's appearance not surprised her. What did surprise her was Goliath's other companion. She had no idea who this female was and they way she clothed herself was rather odd. But that was not too important now, because Goliath's return meant that their chance of surviving had suddenly risen quite a bit.

"Goliath... Angela, you really found him! That's more than I had dared to wish!" she finally said in joy.

"And how you have cared for the children is more than I have dared to dream of. I'm so glad to be here with you." Goliath answered, but then looked around the room. "But I wish it would be under better cirumstances. Angela told us what had happened. We know your foes very good, they have caused us much trouble in the last weeks." Goliath said while the Magus and the guardain Tom joined them. Tom had to use a crutch because he had a rather nasty wound on his left leg.

"I hope we can then fare better in battle than the first time." Tom said while walking in front of Goliath. "Dispite all the training I have given them, we were simply beaten by them. But with you already having battled them, I think we could have a better chance of getting the upper hand. I'm just glad that you survived all this time so that I can show you personally how stong they have become since they have hatched."

Goliath still had some problem to connect this warrior with the boy he once knew, but it was clear to him, that Tom was hurting because of feeling that he had failed. "You have done well, because if not for you, your enemies would have made short work of you, killing all of you. I know them, they are dangerous, so that no one was killed is evidence enough for me that you have succeed into training them to be warriors."

"Well, it would be better if you can tell us what had happened so far while I start to treat the young lass' wounds..." Magus said, finally breaking his silence while starting to clean Ophelia's wounds. "She always gets herself into trouble and had denied to let us treat her wounds." Magus said this as a scold towards Ophelia, who whimpered every time another wound was cleaned.

"Ow...how should I have known, that...ow... that he could simply appear as made of sand? Ow..ow...ow..oooww...!" Ophelia tried to protest.

"I know that you are very stubborn, but that you ignored your injuries..." Angela only shook her head. "Ophelia, if you continue that way, poor Gabriel will watch over you like a mother hen."

"-Ahem-." Elisa finally wanted to start, and also she had compassion with Ophelia and wanted to save her from a lesson. "I think we better start to tell you what had happened so far..."

_...meanwhile on the other side of the island..._

There was a bassin of vision in small pavilion made of marble. I had been the retreat of the Weird Sisters when they still had lived on Avalon. Now the Archmage had his base there.

These Sisters were simply sitting at the bassin, realaxing while waiting for the carnage to begin. The Archmage had told them to wait until dawn, then they would have it easy to shatter the gargoyles to dust. Finally after 1000 years, they would clean the isle of the intruders. And that just in time. They not wanted to imagine Oberon's reaction to them when he would return in less than four months. Of course until then the Archmage had to go too, but their thoughts hadn't dwelled that far already.

Demona and MacBeth meanwhile checked their weapons. Both of them were enspelled, forcing them to do the Archmage's bidding, but were still very aware of what happend. And while MacBeth was simply disgusted by the fact the he was used to kill these innocent, Demona was torn. Demona on one hand would have liked to rip the humans to pieces, especially the Princess who she hated with a passion. But on the other hand she not wanted to destroy the gargoyles, there were already too few on the world.

And there were two Archmages. The one who would start the time-loop to save himself from death, and the one who already had done this and waited for the other to leave. The first waved away a picture of Goliath on the surface of the bassin. Triumphant, he stood up. "Finally! All elements are now together! Goliath and his clan are doomed!"

"Isn't it time for you to leave?" the other one asked him.

"I just wanted to go."

"And you know what to do?"

"Of course. I watched you doing it." The Archmage toughed the Phoenix Gate, and he vanished in the phoenixfire, starting the timeloop.

"Finally! I thought he would never leave..." the Archmage said, finally assured that the loop was closed he he rescued by himself. The plan had been a masterpiece, and despite the fact that he still had no clue how the loop had originally started, he knew that it was much better than death.

Now he had the power he had dreamed of for years. That, and his sworn enemy Goliath was now there to be destroyed once and for all. After that, he would start his conquest to take over the world.

_...back in the castle, some time later..._

Goliath and Elisa had tried to give them their story as fast as possible to not waste too much time. Still they had needed nearly half a hour. Finally things had become much more clear when the parts of the puzzle had come together, regarding the plan of the Archmage, the involvement of the Sisters and the role Demona and MacBeth played.

When Elisa had explained that she once was human, Magus had not even blinked an eye, most likely because as a sorcerer, nothing having to do with magic could shock him. The others had reacted very surprised, and Catherine had looked at her in something that would have fitted the description of a mild shock.

"A fey did this to you? It must be horrible to have your life taken away." she finally said.

"I still try to get used to it. And without the clan... I have no idea what I would have done then. But I don't want to throw my life away only because some fey thought it to be funny to do this to me." Elisa declared. "But we have more pressing problems now." she added when looking over to Goliath who studied a map of Avalon. The uninjured members of the clan had gathered around him.

"There are only three hours left until dawn, and our enemies have the option to simply wait. But we on the other hand can't wait. Our main problem is the Archmage, so he should be our main target while we for now will ignore Demona and MacBeth." Goliath was fully in his leader-mode and it was interesting to see how fast the members of this clan followed his advice. "If we can re-take the Eye of Odin and the Phoenixgate, it will be a hard blow for him. To just now take our enemies in battle will be too risky, better we try to trick them. I will try to keep the group as small as possible, but I need a good scout."

"We two know the island as good as no one else in the clan." Angela declared while Gabriel walked beside her. "We will come with you."

"Good. You two will accompany me, our attack has to be well thought, or we will fail. The others will stay here." Turning around he looked to Elisa. "Elisa, while we are out, try to make a emergency plan in case we should fail."

While Goliath left with Gabriel and Angela, Elisa looked to the humans. "Is there anything that could help us? A weapon or something like that?"

"Well..." Magus looked uncertain if he should mention it. "There is the Sleeping King..."

_...at the bassin..._

The Archmage watched Goliath leave the castle, and grinned with evil pleasure. His enemy had no idea that he was watched, and his plans already known. He would give him a proper recieption.

"Now the real fun begins!" he laughed evil.

**_to be continued..._**


	3. Confrontation

Episode #9-11

_**Broken Mirror**_

**Avalon, Part III**

"I just hope that this will work, or we will be in trouble. This there should be the most logical place were we should find the Archmage." Gabriel whispered, while they sneaked through the bushes.

"How so?" Goliath asked.

"It is the only other structure on the isle. After what you told me of the Archmage, he obviously wouldn't accept sitting on the bare ground..." Angela smirked while she said this. "That, and it is farthest away from the castle."

Goliath not commented this, but he had to admit, Angela had a kind of humor he liked. Even in the face of possible death, she found a way to mock her enemies. "How far is it?"

"Actually we are now nearly next to it...40 steps ahead." Gabriel said and pointed in one direction.

"Good, I will try a diversion to make Demona and MacBeth search for me. You two will wait until he is alone, then sneak to him, and try to take the Eye or the Gate, hopefully both. May the Dragon help us..." Goliath then departed, and sneaked away, leaving Angela and Gabriel to sneak to the edge of the bushes. They had a good view on the pavilion from there.

Unfortunatly for them, this had not went unnoticed. And after some minutes of waiting, Angela suddenly felt something cold, metallic being pushed between her wings, sending a slight shock through this very sensible region of her body.

"Both of you, don't dare to fight, or you will die." It was the voice of a older male. "Turn around."

Angela and Gabriel did as said, but Angela was obviously not fast enough, so a clawed hand grabbed her shoulder, forcing her to turn faster while the claws started to penetrate her skin. "Aaaahhhh!" Angela screamed, while coming face-to-face with Demona. "You are hurting me!"

Demona at first not seemed to care, but when some blood began to come out of the wounds and Angela started to cry in pain, she suddenly released her. She almost looked...sorry.

"I think the Archmage will be interested in you two..." MacBeth finally said matter-of-fact, with no emotion in his voice.

"I don't think that you will do that! Why do you even follow his orders?" Goliath had heared Angela's scream and ran back as fast as he could, but now faced the dilemma, that their enemies could kill him also. Demona holding her lasergun in front of him proved this to be very true.

"Goliath, you fool. So you choose not to hide. Honorable but stupid." Demona not answered his question at first. "We have to follow him, his bidding is to be followed."

"We must do as he says." MacBeth added, but it not sounded very convincing.

"Why?" Goliath recieved no answer. _Aha, seems that the control over them not seems to be total..._

"You don't know it, am I right? Demona, even in your insane crusade against the humans, you always wanted to protect the gargoyles of the world. Why do you now want to destroy them? They are what is left of the Clan of Wyvern. Do you want to kill the children of the ones you have once called friends, brothers, sisters, clan?" Goliath then waited for her answer.

"I...I..." Demona seemed to search for an answer, her eyes loosing some of the unnatural white glow. "I...I don't know why I want to do something this... wrong."

Goliath then looked over to MacBeth. "You are a man of honor, yet you attack a clan that had never fought in battle, nor can they defend themselves against your weapons. Tell me, why do you want to commit such a act that goes against all of your beliefs? Is there any honor in this?"

"No..I...I guess not." MacBeth also seemed to weaken, the glow in his eyes lessening.

But all hope was shattered at once, when suddenly, in a burst of phoenix-flames, the Archmage appeared, laughing evil. "You really thought I wouldn't be on my guard? It's useless for you to appeal to their better nature, they are mine now!" Both MacBeth's and Demona's expression became again blank, showing that the Archmage was strenghtening his spell on them. "I have great plans for you, Goliath! But the other gargoyles are expendable. Demona, Macbeth! You can kill them now..."

Both of them aimed their weapons, now ready to kill without a second thought, every trace of them again supressed by the Archmage's magic. _Everything futile..._ was the only thing Goliath thought, preparing for seeing more death. But it never happened.

Growling two watchbeasts had jumped out of the bushes, knocking down all three of their foes. Goliath, Angela and Gabriel had no idea from where they had come from, but now was not the time to think about it. Angela saw that the Archmage was temporary stunned, and wanted to grab the Eye of Odin, but regertted it at once.

"Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!" Then she was thrown back, catched by Gabriel. A bolt of magic energy had shocked her when only touching the Eye.

"Retreat!" Goliath shouted, then all of them ran away as fast as they could. Their attack had been a total failure because their foes had been prepared. And they had not too much time left before dawn and their destruction. Without Bronx and Boudicca following them, they would have been dead now.

The Archmage watched them leave in anger. They had dared to attack him personally! For that they would pay! "I generously allowed them to live until dawn, but if they're so eager to die?" he shouted in anger. "Then let it be this way!"

_...at the same time..._

Elisa followed Magus while they made their way to the Hollow Hill to wake the Sleeping King, Arthur Pendragon. At first, Magus had been not very keen of the idea, but she had told him in not very gentle words, that without him, they would die surely a horrible death. So finally he had agreed to lead her to the place.

"It isn't very far anymore... I know this island very good, have explored it in all the time I had spend alone on my own." Magus said to her, a slight bitterness creeping in his voice.

"I thought you were all like a big family? What had happened that you were left alone so much?" Elisa wondered, if the happy family as which she had seen them, wasn't really as intact as she had thought.

Magus sighed, but obviously he was relieved that he finally could tell it someone. "It was so, at first. But when Tom grew older, he and Katharine fell in love, and they became like husband and wife, rising the children that way. I was only tolerated but practically left out."

Finally it became clear to Elisa, what really was the source of his bitterness. "You still love her. Why didn't you fight for her?"

Magus sighed. "Without the Grimorum, I had nothing to offer. But I stayed, because what I did to the gargoyles a thousand years ago was unforgivable. I owed it to Goliath to tend the eggs. Speaking of Goliath, you seem to really care for him."

Elisa's cheeks reddened a little. "Well...he is quite handsome. He is always there when I have a question about the changes in me. And I spend quite some time with him..."

For the first time Magus seemed to smile a little. "I have seen back then enough of the pairs in Goliath's clan to know, that there is more between the two of you then just friendship. Unlike Demona who, as far as can judge, had been distant even when she and Goliath were mates, you seem to have catched his heart. Maybe you can find the happiness that had been denied to me..."

The rest of the way was in silence. Elisa debated with herself the meaning of Magus' words. _Could it be true, that Goliath really has started to feel more for me than just friendship? That I feel more for him? Oh God, I'm only a gargoyle for a little over a month, I shouldn't think about that yet!... But ... God help me! I have to admit, I really slowly start to fall love with him!_

Finally they had arrived inside the Hollow Hill. And it was surely a breathtaking sight! A big cave, the floor laid out with marble and behind a chasm, where a marble bridge led over, there was a elevated pedestal, on which the were albe to see a human resting. Flanked was the pedestal by two iron armors with swords. Both of them suddenly very alive when they sensed the intruders!

"Oh shit!" Elisa not dared to attack them with her bare hands, because they would have hacked her to pieces with these swords, and she doubted that bullets would hurt them much. "Magus, what should we do now? Magus...?" Magus simply had directed his staff towards the armors and Elisa wondered, if he had gone insane.

_"Dormite, hostes mei, ubi states!"_ Magus chanted, and suddenly both of the armors simply fell apart, the pieces resting on the ground. Exhaused, Magus nearly fell to the ground if Elisa hadn't catched him in time.

"I thought you can't do any magic?" Elisa asked him in wonder, while helping him up.

Magus felt a little guilty that he had not mentioned what he was still able to do, so he decided to better tell it now. "Magic is Avalon's lifeblood. In these years I have managed to learn how to channel some of it for my own proposes. But without a conduit, it is very taxing for me."

Magus still seemed weak, so she decided to wake Arthur on her own. And after the armors, she not really trusted the bridge, most likely another trap. Taking a running start, she jumped, opened her wings and glided the short path over the chasm and landed in front of the now lowered pedestal. The man on the platform looked almost as she had pictured King Arthur in her mind. Carfeful she aproached him.

"Arthur Pendragon, king of all Britain, you are needed." she whispered then nearly jumped in surprise, when the body glowed in a unnatural light for some seconds.

Athur felt his tiredness disappear. He he seen so many dreams that he really had lost count of them. Opening his eyes, he expected that Merlin had awakened him. But to his surprise, there was someone else. _A gargoyle maid? What had happened? _

...a hour later, at the seeing bassin...

The Archmage was still angry. He had obviously underestimated his enemies. He wouldn't repeat this error, so much was sure. He paced in front of the bassin when the Sisters appeared beside him.

"We have send Demona and MacBeth to deal with the intruders." Luna started.

"Soon they will all die." Seline continued.

"And then our victory will be complete." Phoebe completed.

"Good, but now we won't take any more risks. Go to the Hollow Hill and get rid of the Sleeping King! We can't risk him interfering in our matters." The Archmage ordered them with a determined voice.

The Sisters seemed a little shocked that they had to kill the very king they had brought here all this time ago. But they not protested, because the end justifies the means, and Pendragon wouldn't fit anymore into the world anyway. "And what do you intend to do in the meanwhile, Archmage?" Luna asked him.

"Oh, I will wait here for Goliath to come. And he will come, to meet his doom here." The Archmage grinned when he said this. Goliath would be in for a ugly surprise when he would come to him.

_...back at the castle..._

King Arthur tried to process all the information he got. In the last hour since his awakening by the Lady Elisa, he had learned that they needed him to help in a battle over Avalon against a powerful wizard known as the Archmage and his allies the Weird Sisters (He had them not in too fond memory...), Demona the gargoyle and MacBeth. They had told him what had happened so far, most of the background information and that they had less than two hours to win, or they would die with the dawn.

Arthur felt oblieged to help them, or it would be a slaughter. Also his honor demanded that from him and he felt he was doing the right thing. "I will do what I can, but you have awakened me too early. I don't have Excalibur at my disposal, neither my knights or my old menthor Merlin. Nonetheless, I will help you with all my strength to defeat your foes."

Arthur had just said this, when the door few open and Katharine frowned a little. Ophelia again had violated her orders and left the castle dispite her injuries, bandaged or not. Should they survive, Ophelia would be in for a curfew.

Ophelia had obviously sprinted, despite her arching injuries, and panted heavy. "Demona and MacBeth have been sighted in the orchard! The Archmage seems to have decided not to wait until dawn to attack us!"

Arthur seemed to consider the options, already showing that he once had commanded armies. "That could be to our advantage. Since they attack before dawn, we have the numeretical advantage with the gargoyles still awake. But we need to deal with our foes all at once or one victory will be useless. What use is a won battle if we loose the war?"

"Arthur is right, we need to battle our foes all at the same time, otherwise we never will have enough time before dawn." Goliath added. "Therefore we need to divide forces if we want to win. I will personally take on the Archmage."

"Goliath, let me come with you. I won't let you battle him alone." Elisa pleaded, but Goliath declined.

"No, I must fight this battle alone. Elisa, you will be needed here with the others to defeat Demona. Hopefully her hate against you is so strong, that it will break through the spell and let her make a critical error." Elisa looked as if dumped and Golith had the feeling, she feared for him not retuning alive. "Arthur will approach MacBeth, hopefully MacBeth's nature will come through and make him fight a fair fight."

Then Magus went to them. "I will take on the Sisters."

Katharine looked horrified. "Magus!"

Magus held up a hand to calm her. "No. I have delayed this for far too long. I have a good guess where they want to go right now, and I want to end it finally. I have some talents they not know about..." Then Magus went to the door. "Princess... at least for one time I want to prove, that I'm not as worthless, as I seem to be." Katharine was unable to answer to this. Magus had told her open how he felt, and when she finally had collected herself, he was already gone.

Goliath had left also and Elisa and Arthur had led some of the uninjured gargoyles outside to the orchard. She was left with the injured Tom and gargoyles behind. Bronx and Boudicca guarding the injured.

"Had he really meant that? That he had become useless?" Katharine asked Tom while still shocked over Magus true feelings.

Tom looked rather uneasy, clearly thinking over Magus' words. "Now that I try to remember...we always only thought of each other and mostly ignored him. The eggs also never had much time for him. Magus had been surrounded by friends but yet was still very alone."

Katharine tried not to look at him, and instead started to tend the wounded ones. She not wanted him to see the tear she had shed.

_...in the orchard..._

Demona and MacBeth slowly made their way through the rows of trees. If not for the spell, both of them would have loved to attack each other, the hated deeply rooted. But for now they had to obey their orders, the castle was near. Just a little longer, and...

**-click-**

At once they went into battle mode when they heared this from some near bushes.

Elisa cursed. She had wanted to shoot Demona, of course not lethal, to stop her before the fighting would even begin. But just now of all times her gun had decided to jam, and she not had the time to repair it. All what her gun had made, was a clicking sound, but obviously that had been enough. _Okay, move to plan B!_ She held up her hand to signal to attack.

At once Gabriel and three other gargoyles jumped out of the bushes and slammed into Demona, while Arthur dodged MacBeth's electric blasts. MacBeth winced in pain, seeing that it was Demona's pain. "We must get more space between us!" he shouted, then ran away deeper into the row of trees, Arthur close on his heels.

Demona roared in anger. "Get off me, you unmature hatchlings!" Then she knocked a yellow female into a tree before striking her fist into the stomach of a green male. Then she threw off Gabriel and the other female. Demona knew what her main priority was: to destroy the ones that were wounded the first time. Fast she climbed up a tree, not noticing Elisa who ran towards her, but too late.

Demona was already airborne and on the way to the castle. "What do you wait for!" Elisa shouted. "Climb and follow her, or the wounded are dead!" Then she climbed up a tree to follow Demona. Gabriel and the other female did so too, while the other male tended to the knocked out yellow female.

_...at Hollow Hill..._

Magus calmed himself. Now he would face what he had delayed for so long. At least for once in all this time on Avalon, he would actually prove, that even without the Grimorum, he was still far from useless. Waiting he saw the Sisters approach him.

"Taking a rest, grandfather? Or have you chosen this place to be your grave?" Phoebe teased him, annoyed of his appearance there.

"I knew you would come here." Magus said matter of fact.

"You are no match for us." Seline returned, very confident.

"There is no future for you." Luna concluded.

"That needs to be seen..." Magus said, and taped into Avalon's energy, throwing a magical bolt against the sisters giving them much pain. But it only seemed to make them really angry.

"You misused Avalon's energy to to hurt us! For this you will die!" They screamed in union, then started to tortue him with their energy, wanting him to hurt as much as possible.

Magus screamed in pain.

_...at the castle..._

Demona had not thought that she would meet that much resistance. Bronx and another watchbeast had cost her time, and they were still chasing her. Some other gargoyles had attacked her as well, some succeeding to injure her. To her own wonder she had not shot them. Most of them she had simply hit strong enough to delay them, before continuing her way to the infirmary. It wasn't that much way anymore. Only through that door, and...

"Stop right there, Demona!"

This voice she knew! Jerking around, she saw Elisa together with two other gargoyles and the two watchbeasts waiting for her. "You..." she growled, red glow taking over the white in her eyes.

"Come on Demona. It is me who you really want! I have taken the place you lost in the clan, I'm the one Goliath had started to have feelings for." Elisa teased, hoping to make Demona angry enough to attack them.

And Demona did attack them. But instead of going into a rage, she started to fire her laser gun, forcing them to scatter and try to surround her. "I have waited for this too long! Now it is payback time!" Demona gloated, while her laser caused havoc to the castle interitor.

_...in the orchard..._

MacBeth wondered who this stange man was who he fought with the whole time. He was good, having evaded all electic blasts until now. "Who are you?" he finally demanded.

"I'm Arthur Pendragon!" Arthur declared, and suddenly the bursts stopped. Arthur saw that MacBeth had put away his blaster.

"The King Arthur himself! I always wanted to see how I would stand up against the best" Then MacBeth pulled out a broadsword from under his coat. "May the better of us win in this fight of honor!"

"As you wish!" _Finally he behaves like a civilized man._ Arthur added in thoughts. Then their fight began, the two immortal kings fighting who of them would be superior.

_...at the seeing bassin..._

Goliath arrived, but not saw the Archmage anywhere. _Where could he be?_ Suddenly he saw him. He waited at the bassin, as if absolutely sure of his victory. Goliath not waited for him to take action. Instead he dived down with his battle cry, intending to get the Archmage by surprise.

However the Archmage seemed to have forseen this. He suddenly vanished in the phoenixfire, only to re-appear behind him, throwing a lightning bolt into his back, forcing him down to the floor. Despite the pain, Goliath at once got up and faced the Archmage.

"You have become stronger Archmage, but still you will be defeated again." Goliath tauted him.

The Archmage was not impressed. "THAT is the best you can say?" Then he vanished when Goliath lounged at him, only to again appear behind him, hitting him with magic energy. Goliath went down. The Archmage wasted no time, and at once started to torture Goliath with blasts of energy, making him howl in pain.

"You think I have forgotten the last time we faught? Now I will get revenge for the humiliation at your hands!" Then he send another burst through him.

"Why don't you kill me?" Goliath got out in the short break between the bursts.

"I will do so in due time. But for now, I want to see you howl in PAIN!" The Archmage grinned evil, when he continued his torture on Goliath.

_...in the castle..._

Elisa had to admit, Demona had effectively forced them to slowly retreat towards the infirmary. Finally they had to retreat through the door, and Demona suddenly charged at them, knocked them down, before seeing her soon-to-be victims. Obviously the spell now overlaid her hate for Elisa. But she had suddenly lost her grin, and seemed to hesitate. As if seeing the injured had suddenly remembered her of something.

Katharine nearly attacked her, but held back. "How dare you! They are also your children!"

Suddenly Demona seemed to come out of it, and looked with hate to Katharine. "I remember how you had treated me back then in the time of Wyvern. Now it is payback time!"

"NO!" Suddenly Demona was knocked aside. Angry she grabbed the gargoyle who had dared to do so, it was Ophelia. Holding her laser gun towards her, she wanted to shoot her, but then she actually not really wanted it.

_No, I can't kill one of them! There are too few of us already ... YOU MUST OBEY THE ARCHMAGE!_ Two voices faught in her.

_OBEY! OBEY! OBEY! ... I can't! I see the old clan in them! ... KILL THEM ALL! ... I won't do it! They can still join my side! ... YOU MUST DO AS ORDERED!_

Then many more voices appeared in her head, adding to the confilct. _"It is the gargoyle way to protect, and who don't is corrupt!" ... "There will come much good from this egg!" ... "My Angel, what had happened to you?" ... "Soon the eggs will hatch, and then many new hatchlings will bring joy to the clan!" ... "No... NOO! What Have I done? They are all gone!" ... "You are responsible for our tragety!" ... "Murderer! Murderer! MURDERER!"_

"AAAAAGGGGGH!" Roaring nearly mad in pain, Demona threw Ophelia away from herself. Kneeling down, her eyes glowing blood red.

_OBEY!_

When the other advanced towards her, she held up her weapon in shaky hands. But she was unable to pull the trigger.

_KILL THEM!_

There was only one way to finally end her pain. To finally be free of the voices. She aimed the weapon under great pain against herself, and pulled the trigger!

_...in the orchard..._

Arthur had to admit, MacBeth was a very good fighter. Actually if he would have met him in the days of Camelot, he would have not hesitated to make him one of his knights.

But even MacBeth wasn't without fault. While he was very good with the sword, he sometime not had the patience to go through with more complicated manouvers. This was to Arthur's advantage. When MacBeth again attacked, he finally managed to disarm him with his mace, the sword flew away into the high grass.

_FIGHT! DON'T HESITATE! ... But I'm weaponless!_

"You are defeated, MacBeth! Now I demand your surrender." Arthur declared.

_NO, DON'T SURRENDER! YOU MUST FIGHT FOR THE ARCHMAGE! ... I can't fight for him if I'm temporary dead! When I surrender, I still have the chance to get back to them, also the code demands that I surrender._

MacBeth got down on his knees. "I do surrender. I... aaahhhrggg!" Suddenly pain shot through his chest, then he dropped dead. Arthur was unsure how to proceed, but thought it best, to bring the body to the castle.

_...at Hollow Hill..._

Magus had no idea that he could channel so much of Avalon's energy through himself. But it had a price. He felt himself becoming weaker with every moment, soon he would be too weak to resist anymore. Gritting his teeth together, he sent out a burst that threw the Sisters into a near lake. But this only seemed to make them really, really mad. And when they levitated out of the lake, soaked to the skin, they glared death to him.

_Oha... looks like I had done something, that had angered them even more!_

**"For this you will pay!"** they shouted in unsion, then summoned a thunderstorm with horrible lightning and stong winds which threatened to simply blow Magus away.

_I admit, it was a BIG error to do that!_ Transforming his staff into a tree, he found temporary shelter, until a lightning bolt hit it, focing him to retreat. Panting he retreated to the inside of the Hollow Hill.

The Sisters looked after him.

"Now he is finished. But still he must pay for what he did to us all these years ago." Luna declared.

"Yes my sisters, now we have all time in the world to chase him." Seline said, also still wanting their revenge.

"Still don't waste time, even if he is unable to escape now!" Phoebe added, then they followed the Magus into the Hollow Hill. But to their surprise, Magus not even attempted to flee, instead he nearly crawled to the empty pedestal of the Sleeping King.

At once the Sisters feared the worst. The empty pedestal meant, that Arthur had awakened. And having Pendragon as their enemy would be indeed very bad. But for now they wanted to finish off their prey.

"Where is the Sleeping King?" Phoebe asked with anger, but Magus ignored her. Instead he gathered all his stength for a last spell.

_"Iron armors hear my plight. Bind these whitches hard and tight!"_ Suddenly the remains of the iron armors transformed into a chain, which wrapped tight around the Sisters, trapping them within iron. They screamed in anger, but to no avail, their powers were negated.

Magus on the other hand laid unmoving on the pedestal.

_...at the seeing bassin..._

"Aaaarooouugh!" Goliath again screamed in pain when the Archmage continued to torture him. This had gone on for minutes, and while not lethal, it caused him terrible pain, much to the joy of the Archmage.

"Haha! I could do this the whole night, and still couldn't get enough of this!" the Archmage taunted. But his laughing suddenly stopped when he was knocked to the side.

Goliath felt the pain leaving him, and saw, why the Archmage had stopped torturing him. Angela had obviously ignored his orders and had followed him, but for that he was glad now. She had knocked down the Archmage, but he seemed to be not impressed and had send Angela down to the ground with a blast. But it had given Goliath enough time to recover and attack the Archmage.

"Fool!" the Archmage shook him off, and when Goliath wanted to attack again, there were suddenly two Archmages. "Guess which of us is the right one! Ha ha!" Both said in union.

Goliath watched both of them, they he noticed it. One Archmage had a reflection in the bassin, the other one not! Goliath wasted no time and attacked the real Archmage. The illusion disappeared.

"Wha-!" the Archmage was surprised by this but before Goliath could really harm him, he hit him with a magic pulse that pushed him into the near ocean. "That was foolish of you, Goliath!... ICE!" The Armage wasted no time and froze much of the surrounding ocean over, trapping Goliath under the ice.

"Hahaha! You not expected that, am I right!" the Archmage laughed while watching Goliath struggle to break through the ice. Then Goliath seemed to sink to the ground, and the Archmage thought him dead. But suddenly he shot up and through the ice, getting a hold on the Eye of Odin!

"Arh!" the Archmage felt Goliath trying to rip the Eye out, fighting against the energies that attacked him. Activating the Phoenix Gate, the Archmage tried to shake him off. But Goliath jumped with him every time. Suddenly there was a flash, and when the light cleared, the Archmage laid on the ground, and Goliath held the Eye of Odion in his hand.

"Again you have lost, Archmage." Goliath said calm while advancing on the fallen foe. But suddenly he moved, and Goliath stopped. The Archmage jumped up, looking at him with hate, his face returned to his normal look after the Eye had been removed.

"You are still a fool, Goliath! I still have the Phoenix Gate!" Parting his long beard, the Archmage posed with the talisman. "And the Grimorum Arcanorum is a part of me, for all eternity!" the Archmage triumphed.

But suddenly white lightning seemed to spread over him. "NO! THE GRIMORUM!", the Archmage cried in fear, "WITHOUT THE EYE I CAN'T CONTROL IT'S POWER! NO, No,...nooooooo!" The Archmage was literally consumed my the white light until only the Phoenix Gate was left. "All my lovely magic..." then silence.

"It is over..." Goliath was quite shocked at what had happened to the Archmage, but he had no time to dwell on it, when he looked to Angela, who cried while looking into the bassin, a picture of the dying Magus on it.

_...shortly before dawn..._

Dispite their victory, no one was in the mood to celebrate. Magus had died under their hands, and everyone was now depressed. Katharine had taken it especially hard, she had cried the whole time, and Goliath had to carry her back to the castle because all strength seemed to have left her.

Magus' death had created a deep scar in the soul of this clan, and it would take time to heal.

The chained Sisters had been simply dumped into a room, all three of them protesting. But no one wanted to deal with them for now. Demona and MacBeth, both who had somehow come back to life, in other, seperated rooms, both of them chained.

All welcomed the dawn to finally heal from the injuries of the night. Elisa perched beside Goliath, with only seconds before dawn. Goliath suddenly felt Elisa's tail entwine with his. He had no idea if she knew that this was a gestue of great affection, but he not withdrew.

Then the sun went up, and both of them froze to stone.

_...the next night..._

Three skiffs had been pulled down to the beach of Avalon. But Arthur had already departed, declaring that he would explore this new world while trying to find Excalibur and Merlin. They had wished him well before he had left them.

MacBeth and Demona were also gone. Goliath had forced the Sisters to free them from the spell, making them forget everything after the night of the City of Stone in the process. Then he had pushed the skiff in which both of them were away into the mist while both were still unconscious. Then he had ripped the chain, and both sisters had fled the island. Hopefully they would never return.

Beside himself, Elisa and Bronx there were all of the clan of Avalon with them at the beach. All of them wished them well on their travel home, and Elisa somehow had them impression as if they expected her to hold hands with Goliath.

Angela looked at them in hope. "Goliath, Elisa?... I ... can I come with you? What I have seen of the outside world was so... I can't put it into words. Please allow me to come with you."

Elisa smiled. Angela was a bright girl, and Elisa still hoped that someday Goliath would accept that she is his child, getting over this 'gargoyle way'. "I would like it if you come with us. Of course, Goliath must agree on it also..." Making her best puppy eyes to him, she hoped that he would not simply leave Angela here.

Goliath seemed to know very well that she wanted Angela to come with them also because of her heritage. But he could not really bring himself to deny them their wish. Grumbling he only said "Agreed." before he returned his attention to the skiff. "And we are ready to leave Avalon. Come on board!"

Angela seemed very excited when she joinde Goliath Elia and Bronx on the skiff. She couldn't wait to return to the outside world.

All of the clan wished them farewell when the skiff slowly started to drift to the ocean. "Goliath, is in there what I think is in there?" Elisa asked him, when seeing his filled belt punch.

"I'm personally going to insure that the Phoenix Gate and the Eye of Odin are never used again." Goliath answered her. "They are far too dangerous to fall into the wrong hands."

"If you say so..." Elisa just hoped that they would never see these items in action again. "My personal goal is to get back to New York, as soon as possible. Poor Brooklyn must be already quite desperate for you to return, Goliath."

"Lady Elisa, I forgot to mention this! Avalon does not take you where you want to go. Avalon sends you where you need to be." Tom shouted from the beach, just before the mist appeared, and Avalon vanished.

"Wait a minute! What does he mean, where we need to be?" Elisa asked, suddenly afraid that she would not see New York when the mist would disappear.

_... _

What had happened? Where am I? I feel the power in here... Curse you Goliath! I will return, and then my wrath will be horrible!

For now, I can wait...

**_The End_**

**_Next installment:  
Night of the Raven_**


End file.
